“The struggles of L’Express are those around democracy,” underlines Alain Weill. As the magazine celebrates its 70th anniversary, the owner confirms that the price of the weekly will increase.
Alain Weill is the businessman who relaunched RMC, created BFM TV and took over the weekly magazine four years ago The Express, created in 1953 by Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud. To mark the newspaper’s 70th anniversary, a conference is being organized at the Maison de la radio et de la musique, Wednesday October 18, on the theme: “It was good yesterday, it will be better tomorrow.” It will bring together personalities such as Bill Gates, Emmanuel Macron and numerous French and international experts around the emblematic themes of the newspaper. A special issue is also coming out on Thursday.
franceinfo: For the 70th anniversary of the magazine, you are releasing a special issue and organizing a conference of reflection under the sign of “Optimism and commitment”. Is it because you have also become aware of the information fatigue of the French?
Alain Weill: We wanted a conference that resembled us and our editorial line. The precise title of the conference is: “It was good yesterday, it will be better tomorrow”, we return to the history of the newspaper and then we move on to anticipation subjects such as: what will be the medicine tomorrow? What will technology be like tomorrow? Artificial intelligence (AI)? With great experts like Bill Gates who explains why tomorrow will be better.
By buying L’Express in 2019, you perhaps had things in common with the ideals of its founders, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud. We remember their fight against the death penalty, for the legalization of the pill. Did today The Express must also be an activist and on what fights?
I bought this newspaper firstly because I wanted to continue to be useful in the media sector. This mark was in mortal danger and could disappear. So, the challenge of ensuring the survival of a newspaper like The Express, who has contributed to the democratic debate for 70 years now, it was a beautiful subject, even if it was a difficult subject. I was able to do it because I was in tune with the DNA of the newspaper. I knew it would be easy to work with the editorial staff, with the editorial director, Éric Scholl, which is the case today.
And on what fights The Express could position itself?
The struggles of L’Express are those around democracy. This will be the main theme of the first debate with Bruno Le Maire and Francis Fukuyama. Are democracies in danger? A real hot topic at the moment. The signing of the new advertising campaign The Express, it’s “On the good side of the news”. At first, this slogan shocked me because I found it arrogant that we decided that we were on the right side of the information.
A little care bear perhaps?
No, it’s not care bears, we’re on the right side of the information. Because on the subject of the war in Ukraine, we are on the side of Europe, of Ukraine. When there is a debate around terrorists, we are also, in our opinion, on the right side. So we choose it and we claim that it is the good side and that the other side is not good. On these subjects, we claim it. On social issues, L’Express was recently in favor of gay marriage, for example.
“‘L’Express’ has always been ahead of all social issues such as the Veil law, abortion, the death penalty. We are always, in our opinion, on the right side of the information.”
Alain Weill, owner of “L’Express”at franceinfo
You draw a lot of inspiration from what is happening abroad. BFM TV and RMC were inspired by American radio and TV and The Expresswhen you bought it four years ago, it was to make it a The Economist French with fewer photos than The Express from before, with longer articles. What assessment do you make four years later?
Positive because today we put the house back together. We are in a financial situation which today ensures the sustainability of the company since we have returned to profit. So for 70 year olds, this is good news.
The finances are balanced, but in terms of circulations, four years ago, you were hoping for 200 000 subscribers. We’re still at 100 000. You are still behind Point And The Obs. Is this a disappointment? What more needs to be done?
No, it’s not a disappointment at all. It’s an assumed choice. We are a newspaper that has changed its target. Today we are on a much narrower target than before, so we cannot gain additional subscribers. The subscription world is an extremely restricted world, I discovered it quite recently, and our strategy has rather evolved. The idea today is to remain at 100,000 subscribers, which is already an achievement, but to increase prices. We are following a value strategy and we are addressing subscribers or future subscribers who agree to pay more for information, I believe today, of better quality than in the past.
Will L’Express TV be in the running for the next TNT channels in 2025?
We will look at the opportunities if indeed there is the possibility of launching a channel. It won’t be a news channel, I’m not going to launch the fifth news channel now, so it will be something else. And then we’ll see because the world of television is also being disrupted at the moment by digital transformation. We will see when the time comes, what is the best choice.
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